Project Phongsali: Animal encounters keep work interesting. Can anyone identify this snake?
This snake was over nine feet long.
Day 25
Some quick takes:
Saw a hen leading a flock of ducklings about. I suppose someone tricked her into brooding some duck eggs. I wondered, how would they ever learn to swim? Then, a huge Vietnamese potbellied pig bolted out of the bushes, snatched a duckling, chomped just once, and swallowed the youngster in a single gulp. Then, the pig started up the line of remaining duckling anticipating a second, third, fourth and fifth course. I drove the pig off, figuring the villager would rather have a flock of ducks than a slightly fatter pig.
I flushed a snake today as I walked down a hillside through dried brush. It headed toward Yai, who is deathly afraid of snakes. At my warning call, Yai froze in his tracks. Oratai, who is not afraid of snakes and apparently likes to eat them, came on the attack holding a stick the size of a buggy whip. When he saw the size of the snake he briefly retreated and came back with something more on the order of a baseball bat. But, by that time the snake was out of sight. Fine with me. Perfectly fine with Yai.
Interestingly, both Oratai and Yai passed over the snake before it bolted in front of me. To Yai, this should confirm what I’ve been joshing him about for years: that it’s always the third guy in line who gets bit by the snake. For the next couple of days I’ll stretch the joke out by refusing to walk third in line. (Thus passes for humor on the job here. Pretty lame, but some days “lame” is all we’ve got).
On the way to Phongsali a couple of days ago we stopped to admire a snake some farmers had killed in their field and were hoping to sell roadside. Yai paced it off. About nine feet long. Of all the snakes in Laos, I thought only the king cobra got that long, but the guys gave it a name that associated it with a particular tree that Yai couldn’t name in English. In Lao the farmers called the snake, “moo kon tau” (my phonetic spelling). Another mystery to be researched when I get home, unless an American student reading this can get the answer for me. I wish I had the packing space to carry a good field guide!
It’s 5:30 PM now and, ordinarily, we’d be thinking about a bath before the sun goes down. But, Yai just called, “Hey Jim, want to go with me and see some UXO?” That can only mean that a villager just home from the fields has found something. We’re off! Bath and dinner can wait.